BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE DEER ZONE (scents, food plots, minerals)

  • Most of us hunt
    • 40 acres or less or public land
    • People with 40 acres or more have more options
    • I have created some of my best spots on 15 to 20 acres
  • What is a deer zone?
    • A deer zone is a stand location or several stand locations you create to make your hunting area a breeding zone
    • Your goal is to hold the deer in your area, mainly the does, which are broken up into family groups. You may have a family group of does hitting the set up on different locations such as one group on the north and the other on the south side of the property.
    • Yes bucks may hold in their during their summer patterns and early season within their home range and leave that home range, but if you set up your zone correctly they will return for the rut. Your zone will be set up for the breeding time with does in your hunting area.
  • What should a deer zone include?
    • Travel corridors, deer travel from one section of land to the next
    • Create pinch points to narrow the deer into one spot. Your kill zone. Sometimes large tracks of woods like state land can be difficult to achieve this but with working on the spot you can do it.
    • Large food plots (2 acres or more) feed the deer. Smaller food plots (sizeable that you can reach the shot by bow) Example 30 yards by 40 yards or set it up that you can set up several stand locations around the food plot to effectively cover it from all different wind directions. Smaller food plots are where they will frequent more often and where they will graze.
    • Water sources. If there is no water within a mile of your hunting area, use a kids swimming pool. Dig it into the earth of fill it with some rocks for it to stay and place and fill it partial way. If you are hunting in a state land set up, purchase a pond liner, dig a hole and slope the ground to drain into it, put the excess dirt from the hole on the edges of your liner to hold it in place.
    • Mineral stations help you get an inventory of what bucks are in your area. Be careful what you are choosing for minerals. Remember minerals are supplements iron, copper, zinc, magnesium and not a lot of salt. They do like salt but too much is not healthy for the deer.
    • Bottom line; if you are willing to do the work the rewards will come. Remember big mature bucks are lazy. They look for the easiest way for them to get their needs. Start early, don't wait until September to start. I start working on my spots as soon as the snow leaves. Same if someone hires me. I start as soon as possible so by fall all the deer are relaxed and are used to the changes.

Deer Scents

What is a gland base scent?

Big Buck Adventures works with a team of people who are deer farmers, animal biologist, veterinarians, and deer processing plant where we extract the glands from dead deer. Big Buck Adventures incorporate the glands into a quality deer urine to make the scent.

Deer like humans have many glands. Deer communicate through their interdigital gland. Not by urine. Remember urine goes bad, rancid in 24 hours. Glands smells are stronger and last longer than any other kind of scent.

All of the scents from Big Buck Adventures have one or several glands mixed with the urine to make it a strong communication scent, if it is by interdigital or tarsal gland.

The Rut

The rut is always on time. The weather can depress deer movement but the rut is always going. I fell the best peak rutting time is November 10th through the 15th. Sometimes it can be a little earlier, depends when the does come inn, the does all do not come inn at the same time.

The secondary rut can be the best one. That comes 28 to 32 days later than the first one. Weather is usually cooler, better day movement from bucks, Does that did not get bred the first the first time are in heat and the fawns are coming into heat for the first time. Bucks will bred as long as they have their antlers on because they are still producing testosterone.

I have seen good rut activity in December this past years and bucks were fighting and hitting scrapes to almost Christmas this year.

New Scents

Pre orbital buck gland scent

The most important gland that comes from the fore head, ears, and sylyva gland. This is the best communicator to start the licking branch and a effective mock scrape.

Doe Passion

Mixed with Doe Whisper. Doe in heat and a strong musk gland from the doers tarsal glands when they where I heat.

Notes

Doe are in heat for only 28 hours

Bucks hormones change when they loose their velvet, pre rut begins around the first of October, depending on weather, moon phase and day light.